5 Feb 25 - ORCA Saga Eastern Med Cruise Day 17 - You Dirty Old Town, You Dirty Old Town

Our eighth landing on the Saga Eastern Mediterranean Cruise was to Palermo in Sicily. It was the only landing over the two Saga cruises that I've surveyed on, that I think could have been dropped without any major loss. Looking at options for Palermo the evening before, there wasn't anything that jumped out as a fun option. We considered borrowing the electric bikes to get out of town to some of the surrounding countryside. But having visited Naples and the Pisa area back in 1983, I hadn't been impressed with the quality of the driving, especially from youths on mopeds. In the end, we dropped that idea, as it would have been a fairly long trip on local roads.

First light as we headed into Palermo

It was another atmospheric sunrise

With Plan A cancelled, Plan B was to walk into the city. The places of interest in the city were either tours of churches or mafia-themed tours, neither of which appealed. So, we settled for the bizarre Palermo Capuchin Catacombs. These date back to 1597, when the Capuchin friary extended their burial ground into underground caves. The early monks that were laid to rest ended up being naturally mummified. After that, it became popular for the monks to continue the practice, with natural or deliberate mummification. Eventually, it was so popular that the bodies of members of the public were also allowed in, if they could afford to donate to the friary, until burials were stopped after 1880. It is now the largest collection of mummified bodies in the world. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but in reality, it's a bit too macabre to want to photograph anyway. After fifteen minutes inside, I was glad to be heading out.

An interesting-looking church

The main centre of the city was very squashed in, but with some scenic buildings. However, as we got closer to the catacombs, we were in more residential areas. What really stood out was the amount of rubbish left lying on the streets. It was a real contrast to all the other landings we had seen. Any reasonable sized-street contained as much discarded litter, as I had seen on some of the other landings in a half day of walking around them. One of the passengers asked a shop keeper about why he didn't try to keep the area outside his shop clean and he just didn't care.

There were some decent-looking buildings near the city centre: On one of the roads I walked along I looked at the cars. Everyone had dents on the wings or bumpers or both. Clearly, the locals don't take a lot of care about how they park in such tight streets

A cart outside the Sicilian Cart Museum: We passed this by chance. Had I known it was much larger, it would have been a more pleasant place to look around, than the catacombs

The Sicilian Cart Museum: The street entrance

We passed through this fruit and veg market: There was some impressive food in this market

Leaving the clothing market: This market was adjacent to the food market

There wasn't a lot of room between some of the houses

Another old church: The places of interest in the city were either tours of churches or mafia-themed tours

The Teatro Massimo Auditorium: This is Italy's largest opera house

It had been a good opportunity to stretch the legs and we walked for six miles around the city. However, I think in hindsight, I should have paid to get on one of the Saga bus tours outside of the city, it would almost certainly have been more interesting. It was the only landing that we were back for lunch in the main restaurant.

A look over the city as we were preparing to depart

The sun was starting to drop behind the nearby hills

Looking out of the harbour mouth

It was dark by the time we were heading out to sea. The plan was to head South for Tunis the following morning. I was excited when I looked at options in Tunis, as the modern city is near to the ancient city of Carthage. This was somewhere I had long thought would be interesting to visit, but never thought I would get to see.

3 Feb 25 - ORCA Saga Eastern Med Cruise Day 15 - Going Back In Time On Crete

Another day, another landing. Today's location was the city of Heraklion, on the North coast of Crete. It was another day when I didn't expect to see anything worthwhile on the Bird front and I decided not to take the proper camera with me, so all the photos are taken with the phone camera. First light saw us making our final approaches into the harbour and therefore there wasn't any opportunity for surveying. However, we were on deck as usual looking, just in case we could see anything of interest.

We were making our final approach to the harbour at first light

Looking across to the city centre and the old harbour: The old harbour is guarded by the Koules Fortress

Our plan for the day was to borrow electric bikes from the ship and to explore the city with them. As members of the entertainment team, we were allowed to request them. However, there is always the risk of a late request from some of the passengers, in which case, we would lose out. We went down at nine and fortunately, they were still available. First, I needed to complete my electric bike cycling training, which took a few minutes on the quayside to master how they worked. A bit fiddly starting out cycling the very heavy & study bike, before the power kicked in, but they were straight-forward to use. We were soon cycling the couple of miles to the city centre. The bike had a top speed of fifteen mph. We weren't going flat out, as we started cycling on the pavements, before being forced onto the road. But it didn't take us long to get to the Natural History Museum, which was our first destination.

A map of Crete in the Museum: I've added a red dot showing the location of Heraklion. The island is about one hundred and sixty miles in length and thirty-seven miles at its widest point

The Natural History Museum was well laid out in a restored industrial building that used to house an electricity power plan. Its stated aim is to highlight the Natural History and Geology of Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean. However, some of the exhibits were surprising, given they had no connection to this region. I can't help thinking that these could have been replaced with more appropriate exhibits.

Short-toed Eagle: Doing what they do best, feeding on Snakes

Eagle Owl: I saw my first Eagle Owls in the Avas Gorge in mainland Greece on my first foreign trip back in July 1983. It's a species that doesn't seem to occur on Crete

Hazelhen: A species that occurs in mainland Greece

Capercaillie: A species that only occurs in mainland Greece

Wild Boar: They occur on Crete, as well as, mainland Greece

Red-necked Terrapin: One of the most invasive species of Reptiles in the world

One floor was dedicated to Dinosaurs, but it was a pity that most of the main exhibits had little or no relationship to Greece or the Eastern Mediterranean.

Ankylosaurus magniventris: This was an impressive animated model of species that dated to about sixty-eight to sixty–six million years ago. However, fossils have only been found in the West of American and Canada

Karen reading about Torosaurus latus: This is another species which has only been found in the West of American and Canada and they were around in a similar period to Ankylosaurus magniventris. There seems to be an ongoing debate as to how closely related the Torosaurus genus is related to the better known Triceratops genus

Stegosaurus armatus: The various Stegosaurus species were around in North America, Europe and Asia between one hundred and fifty-five million years and one hundred and forty-five million years ago. It is now considered that Stegosaurus armatus is probably not a valid species, but it probably one of the other Stegosaurus species

Megaraptor namunhuaiquii: This is another species that has only been found in the New World, but this time it's Argentina. They occurred from ninety-four million years to eighty-three million years ago

Having had a good look around the Natural History Museum, the others were keen to look around the town area. I was keen to go back in time and headed off to Knossos. I can remember seeing programs on the TV about the extensive ruins of the Palace of Minos, which date back to 1900 BC. It was a major Minoan Palace until its destruction in 1350 BC. The Minoan civilisation developed from the local Neolithic culture around 3100 BC on Crete and started to build larger urban settlements from 2000 BC. They were the first major civilization in Europe, until the mainland Mycenaean Greeks civilisation developed around 1450 BC. The Mycenaeans went on to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Palace of Minos site is a large site: The main building is roughly square with sides of about one hundred and fifty metres. There are plenty of other archaeological remains over the neighbouring area

There are three large circular pits near the entrance dating from 1900 - 1700 BC: They are known as the Kouloures. Their use is uncertain, but suggestions include they were grain storage pits or rubbish pits for sacred offerings

Arthur Evans: Oxford archaeologist Arthur Evans bought the site in 1900. He and his team began long-term evacuations from 1900 to 1913. Evans resumed the excavations between 1922 to 1930. He was responsible for much of the excavations at the site, which had been partially excavated in the previous twenty-seven years, albeit the Ottoman authorities had not allowed much digging during that period. He is credited for discovering the Minoan Civilization, but his work was also controversial due to the inaccurate and irreversible reconstructions he authorised on the site

There are extensive walls all around the site: There are over one thousand rooms within the Palace complex

Another area of rooms

A multi-floor reconstruction: One of the signs indicated some of these reconstructions used concrete. The authorities are looking at renovating some of these areas, using a more realistic mortar that would have been used in the original construction

Another area of reconstruction: These are good in they try to bring areas of low walls back to life. However, it would be good to know how accurate the authorities believe these to be

Another reconstruction: These areas at least help to give an idea of how the buildings might have looked

Modern archaeologists have also queried how realistic some of these paintings are: The feeling is a number were made up by the artists a century ago

These storage vessels were four or five feet high: They would have held oil, wine and grain

Another area of reconstruction

The painting in the last photo

More rooms on the hillside: Around 1350 BC, the palace was destroyed. The building was ravaged by a fire which triggered the collapse of the upper stories. It is not known whether this final destruction was intentional or the result of a natural disaster

Another area that has been renovated

The Dolphin mural: Both the ancient Greeks and Romans held Dolphins in high regard and Knossos had one of the earliest known murals of Dolphins. This is a modern copy of a reconstructed mural by the artist Piet de Jong who painted it between 1922 and 1930. The original reconstructed mural is on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum

Evans believed this was the Throne Room within the Palace: Is was named based upon the stone throne that he discovered during the excavation. He thought this chamber was used for religious and ceremonial purposes during the 15th century BC. Some archaeologists believe this room and the wall paintings date to the time of the Mycenaean takeover from 1450 BC

The room next to the Throne Room

Another reconstructed part of the site: It may appear from this Blog Post that much of the site has been reconstruction. That isn't the case, it's more a case I took more photos of the reconstructed parts, than of the low walls within the site

Another reconstructed part of the site

More reconstructions

One final photo from the Palace of Minos

After a good look around the Palace of Minos, I decided to head back to Heraklion and have a look around the old harbour.

A Dolphin statue by the Venetian harbour

Venetian Shipyards: In 1204, the Republic of Venice bought the city of Heraklion and they administered it until 1669. In 1669, it was finally captured by the Ottomans after a twenty-one year siege. These are some of the old Venetian Shipyards that were used to build and maintain their ships

The old Venetian harbour is now only used by small pleasure craft: The main port is a couple of miles to the East

The Koules Fortress: This is one the Venetian defences for the old harbour

The Koules Fortress: It was built between 1523 and 1540 and enhanced in 1630. However, it was outgunned by the Ottomans during the siege of the city

The Koules Fortress looking from the seaward side of the breakwater

I timed my return to the ship well, so that I could get a late lunch in the top deck buffet. This allowed a bit of time to catch up with a few things before I headed up to the top deck to watch our departure. There wasn't any time for surveying by the time we were leaving the port.

Heading out to sea at last light: We had a day at sea before our next destination of Palermo in Sicily